iPad's Screen Cracking Far Less Than iPhone's So Far

Apple’s iPad should be a repair magnet. After all, the tablet computer is covered with a glass plate and is large and heavy enough (1.5 lbs) to easily slip out of a one-handed grasp. In fact, the iPad would seem to be the most fragile–yet popular–gadget on sale right now.

Repair shops, however, say they are getting few damaged iPads–much fewer than the many broken iPhones they see daily. Ryan Arter, the president of Kansas-based Mission:Repair, has seen one iPad so far. The device had been dropped and had a broken interior liquid crystal display (LCD) screen, though its outer glass layer was intact. The result: half the screen was greyed-out or obstructed by static (see photo above). Arter’s staff designed a jig that stabilized the iPad so the glass could be removed and replaced. Afterwards, the device “worked perfectly,” says Arter.

Asif Noorani, the founder of Dr. Cell Phone, a chain of repair shops in Texas, has also seen one iPad. This one, too, had a cracked screen. Noorani’s company charges around $250 to fix iPads, about the same price as repairing a MacBook.

Some iPad owners may be patching up their devices themselves. Repair company iFixit, which aims to be an online hub for repair guides, recently posted a service manual for the Wi-Fi version of the iPad on its site. The document gives step-by-step instructions on how to remove the LCD, replace the battery and other tasks. A manual for the 3G iPad is also in the works.

Equipped with these guides, savvy consumers should be able to fix their iPads at home, says iFixit co-founder Kyle Wiens. “We opened the iPad 12 different ways to find the simplest method,” says Wiens. “Our conclusion was, ‘Yes, we can make this easy for people to do.”

Do-it-yourself repairs aren’t risk-free, of course. It’s easy to break the plastic tabs that surround the iPad’s glass edges, for instance. To solve that problem, iFixit has commissioned replacement tabs and will include them with any iPad part it sells, says Wiens.

Apple offers a complimentary one-year warranty for the iPad, as well as extended coverage–for $99–that provides repair or replacement service for two years from the original purchase date. These plans do not cover damage caused by accidents or “normal wear and tear,” however.

Is the iPad destined to be a popular repair product like the iPhone? Noorani points out that the number of iPad owners is still small compared to the tens of millions of iPhone users. Wiens notes that the glass in the iPad is a little thicker (1.18 mm) than that in the iPhone (1.02 mm), making it more resistant to breakage.

iPads are also getting extra protection from the many cases and screen protectors on the market. Apple sells a $39 case with a “soft microfiber interior and reinforced panels to provide structure”. Other companies have crafted cases out of silicone, wood and hard polycarbonate.

Despite the slow start, Arter believes the iPad will be a “big product” for Mission:Repair. “The fact that it’s glass and relatively big and thin means there will be a lot of damaged devices,” he says.

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